Here’s the article I read a part of on the air during Weekend Worship.
Archive for the ‘Spirituality’ Category
Encouraing article for rough times
Friday, April 3rd, 2009Promise #4 – Take a Day Off!
Monday, February 23rd, 2009Promise #4
Take a Day Off!
How cool is God? There’s 10 commandments. You’ve got just a few commandments or promises to show them the new life you want to give them. With only 10 of these; it’s awesome to me that right in the middle, God has this awesome promise! “You will take a day off!”
The fourth promise says in Exodus 20: 8 “Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 You have six days each week for your ordinary work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of rest dedicated to the Lord your God. On that day no one in your household may do any work. This includes you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, your livestock, and any foreigners living among you. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and everything in them; but on the seventh day he rested. That is why the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy.”
In other words, TAKE A DAY OFF!
This is so like God! It’s His method of operation from the beginning of our little world! God, who can speak and things pop into existence takes 6 days to create the world; and then, takes a day off and says, this is the day to quit working!
Genesis 2:2 On the seventh day God had finished his work of creation, so he rested from all his work. 3 And God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because it was the day when he rested from all his work of creation.
God believes in taking a day off?
Could this be because He knew we’d obsess and work hard?
Could it be that He knew we’d pack our lives with more and more stuff?
Could it be that He knew we wouldn’t stop to enjoy life sometimes?
Could it be that He knew He could pack 7 days of productivity into 6?
Could it be that He knew He could help us realize we were trying to do too much anyway?
The beauty of the Sabbath – the day off – is that it’s a great metaphor of salvation. Where do we mess up too easily on the issue of salvation?
1. We won’t let go and let God take care of our salvation. This is legalism – if I work I’ll get or keep my salvation.
2. We easily forget that God can actually change anything… We start to believe we receive salvation and then stay stuck in our life and sin.
The Sabbath faces both of these lies head on.
Hebrews 4:9 says, “There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; 10for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his.”
The writer of Hebrews is saying, look, salvation is is your rest! You stop worrying about your salvation and transformation and leave it in the hands of God!
And to take a day off of work of all the normal stuff of life – the things that make your life work – means that God has to help make it all work – and we trust Him to actually change things.
The Israelites got a great example of this right before God have them the 10 Commandments. They needed food, so He provided food for them. They called it manna. You can read this story in Exodus 16. Every day God gave them enough food for the day. If they collected too much it went bad overnight.
However, when it came to the day before the Sabbath, they were to collect twice as much so they could rest on the Sabbath. He provided for them… He made them more productive! It’s a promise about the Sabbath encased in a story!
It’s God saying, TAKE A DAY OFF!!! Do you need a day off?
And look at the wording! “You have six days each week for your ordinary work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of rest dedicated to the Lord your God. On that day no one in your household may do any work.” This is talking about the stuff that makes life work; the stuff you are called to do; this is the stuff that makes life continue. You get to stop for a day and relax!
So, God both saves us -and gives us rest – and provides for us in the process!
This is salvation! You have rest – and I’m going to change your life! Complete salvation!
Now, here’s where people get stuck… It’s the first part of the promise:
You will remember the Sabbath day…. but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of rest dedicated to the Lord your God.
What day is the seventh? Saturday. This day has been kept faithfully by Jews for thousands of years. The calendar has been revised, but the days of the week have not changed. Saturday is the Sabbath.
And Jesus kept it – read through the gospels. And He expected people after He was resurrected to keep it as well. How do I know? In Matthew 24 Jesus is talking about persecution to happen after His resurrection and he says, “18 A person out in the field must not return even to get a coat. 19 How terrible it will be for pregnant women and for nursing mothers in those days. 20 And pray that your flight will not be in winter or on the Sabbath. “
So, He is anticipating that His followers would be keeping the Sabbath after His ascension!
You might ask where did people worshiping on Sunday come from then? Well, that’s a whole study in and of itself, however, to give you a quick view- after Jesus ascension Christians started to celebrate His resurrection on Sunday. They kept the Sabbath (you can read this throughout Acts). However, when persecution of the Jews became more and more intense, Christians started to compromise and wouldn’t worship on Saturday to keep a distinction between themselves and the Jews. As political power united with religious power, worshiping on Sunday became the enforced norm.
But, the bottom line is, Jesus never stopped the keeping of the Sabbath on Saturday.
The next easy question is simple… Why does it matter? Shouldn’t I just keep one day as a day off? I would say yes – except that God Himself said, “Remember… to keep the Sabbath day…. but the Seventh is the Sabbath.”
If your job has you working on Saturday or you have other activities on Saturday, then obviously, this is going to be a big faith risk for you… Will God take care of you if you fulfill the promise He has for you?
It all goes back to salvation? Can you trust God with your life? Can you trust Him your time and your money? Yes. Yes you can!
And more than that, you get a DAY OFF!
For more on this, listen to my sermon on this promise at http://livetheexperience.org/media/listen-online-september-13-2008/
Where we are… I’m excited!
Friday, November 21st, 2008Okay, sneak peak at my sermon for this weekend…
We live in a scary time. Have you watched the new recently? A friend had their boss laid off today – the layoffs got close to home again. The stock market is more than a roller coaster – it’s sea sickness on the Titanic….
How did we get here? Are we scared yet?
For years, we’ve been fascinated with homeland security. What has made us secure?
1) A strong defense and offense. Tighten borders. Attack countries that seem a threat. Tighten our borders.
2) Build a strong economy. We do this by encouraging people to spend. We do this by making money available to them – your home value is going up so refinance and take money out; we get 0% credit cards in the mail; we have 0% car loans which puts money into the auto makers pockets. Bush said it after 9/11 – go out and SPEND!!! GO SHOPPING! And we have. My life is currently deficient because I ONLY have a Palm Centrino – not an iPhone; I have a decent sized TV- not a LARGE flat screen; and my newest piece of furniture came from Craigslist. That’s okay though – I have car loan and an SUV that I put part of on a 0% credit card (which is 0% no longer! – Dave Ramsey calls this stupid tax!)
3) Enforce our morality no matter what.
And yet, it’s all fallen apart. The word depression is now common on the news – bringing us flashbacks to visions of the Great Depression – which I wasn’t there for – but I’ve heard was scary bad. In haste to fix this, the government passed a $700 billion bailout – which about half of it has been spent – and I’m excited to tell you that it has fixed our economy and we are back on level footing!!! NOT!
So, as someone who wants to be a radical Christ follower, how do I respond?
Frankly – I am excited.
Now, I come from a conservative Christian tradition which places a huge emphasis on prophecy and end-time scenarios – and so all of my friends from back in the day will probably read this and think – “Yes, he’s excited because it means it’s the END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT!!! and Jesus is coming. Which is great for him, but I’m scared of the disaster that happens before it and what if I’m not ready and what if I mess up and GO TO HELL!!!”
Nope – that’s not why I’m excited. I hope Jesus comes back this month. But I don’t know if it’s right now or 6 months or 60 years… I think it’s coming soon – but I don’t have the holy script – (and – subject of a different note or something, but it seems when people do get “the script” they start living out of fear and control instead of faith and rest… – but I digress…)
I’m excited because I think that as a Christ follower I actually have something to say. And simply put, in this culture of fear, I have hope.
And my hope is simply this – we get to finally get our priorities in tact and get back to what God has been saying all along.
1) My kingdom is not of this world – otherwise my followers would fight. Funny, the fighting hasn’t worked. Time for something else. I am ashamed that Christians promote war. Government of the people, by the people, for the people is NOT a theocracy!!!!
2) Money is not where peace comes from. Peace does not come from a 401K; peace does not come from financial security. Peace comes from a spirit of Thanksgiving because we were lost and God rescued us before – and He will do it again; peace comes from presenting all our petitions to GOD – not our financial adviser or mortgage company.
3) Romans 1 says that God gave them over to their sinful desires. Since we cannot change people – why are we going to war with them? Maybe what they need is Jesus looking into their eyes saying “neither do I condemn you! Go and sin no more…”
So, I’m excited. I’m excite that we may see an amazing true spiritual revival of something that means something to people and makes a difference in their lives. I’m excited that we get to present hope when everything else has fallen apart. I’m excited that we get to remember that money and control never satisfy and we are pushed to rest in God taking care of us!
And that is my rant for tonight…. What do you think? Put up some comments….
10 Commandments – The Beginning…
Monday, September 29th, 2008We’re going to start a new series here on the chaplain blog and radio spots.
I believe the 10 Commandments are very important. They are talked about all through the Bible. However, they have often been more of a curse than a blessing. Which is weird, when you think of how David talked about them:
Psalm 119:97 – Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long.Psalm 119:163 – I hate and abhor falsehood but I love your law.Psalm 119:165 – Great peace have they who love your law, and nothing can make them stumble.
How is it that David can say – I love the commandments? I mean, I hate rules! I don’t want someone telling me what to do!
One of missing component for most of us in thinking of the 10 Commandments is that Christians have traditionally IGNORED the first part of the 10 Commandments – it’s verse 2 of Exodus 20, “I am the Lord your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt, the place of your slavery.”
The first part of this is, “I AM THE LORD YOUR GOD!”
Now, if I were God, I would say, “I am the LORD, and you are MINE!” This is my basic attitude toward a lot of stuff in my life. I have MY bike – it’s there to serve me; it’s there for me to ride on. I have MY computer which I take everywhere and beat to death. I have MY IPOD that I use all the time and is scratched. That’s what I might expect from God.
In fact, that’s kinda the way many people – including myself – have at times felt about the law. It’s God USING us. And yes, it’s for our good, and it’s wonderful, but in the end, it’s God telling me what to do – and I don’t always like that.
So, when I hear, I am the Lord YOUR God – that’s huge! That’s God putting Himself into relationship, accountability, and connection with ME! Not that I am equal, but He is putting Himself into a give and take relationship with ME!
This is a lot more like my relationship with my wife. More than 6 years ago I stood before her and committed to her that I was hers – end of story. I am hers – and she is mine. That’s amazingly powerful to me! It’s similar to the way – at the beginning of the 10 Commandments God says, “I am YOURS!!!!!!”
Let’s journey in these commandments together – I’d love to hear your thoughts – even your frustrations or misunderstandings about them! Post your comments here! If you’d like to hear a sermon I did on this, check this out:
Listen Online — July 26, 2008
Are you like everyone else? Or That thing about Oprah
Monday, June 30th, 2008Sometimes being like everyone else is a bad idea. Last week the pew
Here’s the part where I have to step into the minority and invite you to do the same. More than 50% of people find their absolute sense of right and wrong from “practical experience and common sense.” Less than 1/3 – (29%) find their right and wrong from religion.
So, let’s break this down a little bit….
92% of people believe in a God. If there is a God, then by default, by definition God would define the ultimate right and wrong.
If God exists, then by logical deduction, we will not be able to understand the way He works – if we could, then He would not be God.
Which brings us to how do we determine right from wrong. Here’s where I must completely turn away from the majority. I cannot – and this one of the fundamentals of true spirituality – I cannot on my own determine what is right and wrong – or I would be God.
This idea of being able to determine right and wrong is becoming epidemic in our culture. I think Oprah, whom I have considered to be a very talented broadcaster, has deeply missed the mark. This is from a transcript of a webcast found on her website:
OPRAH WINFREY (
Masterfully woven here is truth an error. It’s true that spirituality based on “church authority” is not true spirituality; the other extreme is just in error. The other extreme which is, “I get to pick what works for me – no matter where it comes from.”
This in essence makes each of us God. And if that is the case then God does not exist, or is irrelevant!
Make no mistake, despite what so many people say, there are radical difference between Christ based spirituality and other religious traditions – whether Buddhism, Islam, other Eastern Religions, mythology, or whatever.
I am deeply concerned for those of us who profess Jesus Christ, who call ourselves Christians… We often profess an ultimate right and wrong from God – but in our actions, are we making excuses, justifying, and rationalizing what we want to do, or what makes sense to us?
How many Christians do I know who are justifying:
- Having sex outside of marriage – whether married or un-married
- Spending money on the stuff of this world
- Watching and listening to things that defy the way God says to live
- Pursuing their career like it is their eternal future
- And more…
Now, I’m not saying we are saved by what we do… I’m saying if we really believe in God we might want to look to Him for the ultimate source of wisdom for our life. This is one of the ultimate questions of spirituality – is there a God; if there is, does He have authority in my life?
So, I challenge you to be different – to disagree with others and live like it… Live like there’s a God. And go to Him for truth.
PS. If you’ve been burned by people who are “religious” please remember that many people who claim the name of Jesus don’t speak or act for Him. Look at Him – not at those people.
KTSY Family Questions – Reading the Bible
Monday, June 30th, 2008
“Could you recommend a Bible study plan for me?”
I’m attaching a couple Bible Study plans for you to look over. One is for reading the New Testament and the other is for the whole Bible. Pick one and try it.
Here are a few things that have been helpful to me in reading the Bible:
- I write things down when I’m reading. Sometimes this is prayers; sometimes this is response and conversation with God about what I’m reading. This helps me slow down and interact with God and the Word.
- Don’t read the Bible like a novel. Read it slowly, read your passage more than once. Ask God what He’s saying to you about your life.
- Don’t try to read too much. It’s about encountering God, not finishing a set amount of chapters.